FORTRESS STUDY GROUP 

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Casemate 84

The Orkney Islands lie to the north of Scotland across the Pentland Firth. Ferries cross from Scrabster by Thurso, to Stromness, and from Gills Bay to St Margarets Hope. Enclosed by the Mainland, Hoy and South Ronaldsay lies the sheltered deep water anchorage of Scapa Flow, its potential as a major naval anchorage recognized in 1812, leading to the construction of two Martello Towers and a battery.

Most of our group stayed in the Ayre hotel, on Kirkwall sea front, where we all dined and lectures took place. Doreen Grove, of Historic Scotland, and Geoffrey Stell, RCAHMS (ret) and expert on military Orkney, had organised our visit, and were our guides and mentors; it was Geoffrey who commenced official proceedings on FRIDAY night after dinner with a highly entertaining Powerpoint presentation, Open Seas: Defending Orkney's Coastline 1914-45, first likening, with a series of pictures, the FSG arrival to an invasion exercise from boats by the 9th Gordon Highlanders (1943-4). But the FSG would never drive Bren-gun carriers through a neolithic stone circle which these chaps were doing (below)! He then introduced Orkney, its military history, from prehistoric broch to modern coast defence (from erosion) paying tribute to the work of earlier researchers and writers; John Guy in particular, Jock Hamilton-Baillie, Jeff Dorman and W S Hewison et al.

A highly entertaining and informative lecture, which put into context all we would see over the next three days.

There was maritime activity through Pictish, Viking and Middle Ages, Cromwell built two forts at Kirkwall, then the Martello period, Victorian and Edwardian times and then WWI and WWII. Both Wars started with the Scapa defences astonishingly weak and incomplete, and the Main Fleet had to stay in Loch Ewe for a time, but soon there were numerous batteries covering nets and booms, and the four narrow eastern entrances were stopped by blockships.

Scapa Flow gained even greater strategic importance as the Royal Navy's main fleet anchorage in two World Wars, facing the North Atlantic, and Germany across the North Sea - 'the stopper in the North Sea bottle'. As a wartime refuge it could be seen as the most important stretch of water in Europe, though it never became a home base. It was part of a strategic defence system encompassing the Shetland Islands, Caithness in north Scotland and Loch Ewe on the west coast. While seen as a vital position, at the start of WWII, Scapa Flow was still extremely vulnerable, exemplified by the sinking by a U-boat of the battleship HMS Royal Oak, at anchor there, in October 1939. Not until 1940 was the anchorage regarded as sufficiently protected.

The building of coastal and AA batteries, airfields, seaplane bases, boom defences, minelaying stations, balloon stations, wireless and radar stations and all the multifarious support facilities, with the huge supply of accomodation needed to house the personnel, constituted the reason for our visit. We barely tickled the surface, as the landscape around the Flow is still littered with the remains, much of them in excellent condition, especially the batteries, of which we saw ten from the 31 shown on Jeff Dorman's map.

The weather up there can be demanding, especially the strong winds - there are few trees on the islands and what there are, are short and bent, growing in sheltered corners, with the hardy sycamore the main windbreak round the many farms - but we were lucky in that while generally cool and grey there was little rain to spoil our visit.

Orkney is not the easiest place to get to; I drove up with Roger Thomas - 130 miles from my place to his, overnight there, an early start and a drive of 508 miles to bed and breakfast near Gills Bay for the 09.45 ferry next morning.

Coming in between Flotta and S Ronaldsay we saw the two Martellos at Hackness and Crockness through the murk, the Naval Signal Station and Buchanan Twin-6 on Flotta, and closer to hand the two batteries of Hoxa, and Balfour double Twin-6 (Nos 1, 2 and 3 on the map). Grey concrete on a grey day is not the easiest stuff to see and photograph.

Having an afternoon to play with, Roger and I duly spent the next three and a half hours roaming all over these two batteries and the Churchill Barriers, so called as Winston Churchill demanded their construction to block the four eastern entrances, one of which had admitted the U-boat.

SATURDAY was a bit dull and gloomy, the wind brisk and chill, and at the end of the day we had some heavy rain.
First call was to Houton to catch a ferry over to Hoy where we spent the day seeing a wide range of sites, starting with the last relics of the WWI seaplane base next to the jetty, where one concrete ramp and the remains of another can still be seen below:

This is a common state of affairs in Orkney; relics of WWI are to be found everywhere, but often only minimal remains can be seen, as many sites were found to be in good positions for WWII structures. We encountered remains from both World Wars everywhere we went and Geoffrey appeared to be on friendly terms with all of them - without his expert knowledge so much of what we saw would have been meaningless, just another anonymous concrete structure but with his explanations all came swimming into focus and became part of a whole.

Landing at Lyness Naval Base, the coach took us to Hackness Martello Tower (1814) and battery (1813) which crossed fire with one at Crockness to close the mouth of Longhope Sound where convoys on the long north-about route could gather, safe from French and American privateers.

Maintained by Historic Scotland, both Battery and Tower are in excellent condition and open to the public. The interiors of both have been restored and the barracks fittings for both are nicely displayed. The view from the top of the Martello, with its 68-pdr Armstrong on a reproduction carriage, makes it abundantly clear why it was built here and how it operated with Crockness.

In 1866 the Armstrong replaced the original 24-pdr. An unusual feature in the parapet of the gun deck, amongst the numerous shot recesses is a very neat stone urinal.

A couple of hundred yards north, nearer the coast, is Longhope Battery (1813), a V-shaped work originally mounting eight 24-pdr cannon firing en barbette, replaced in 1866, following a French invasion scare, by four 68-pdr cannon firing through embrasures.

It appears the final armament was three 80-pdr RMLs of 5 tons - Palliser conversion from 68-pdr SBMLs, removed about 1900 leaving the battery pretty well as it is today.

The intact barracks, with slit windows and shutters, and service buildings are largely from the 1866 refurbishment; the 1813 magazine was demolished after WWI. During the war the Navy used the battery site for personnel operating the boom defences, and the Tower for signalling. The site was sold off in 1922 but mounted radar dishes in WWII - which still serve as sheeps' drinking troughs.

On the hill above is the Hackness HAA Battery (H1), one of over 20 round Scapa, the prefix initial denoting the islands they stand on. The battery conforms to the standard layout, of four 3.7-in guns in a horseshoe round the command centre; nearby and typical of Orkney sites is a decoy site. There is a gun-laying radar ramp and vestiges of the wooden stakes for a high-level wire mat to create a datum for the radar.

Seen en passant, like so much, were the Rysa HAA Bty (H6); a large wireless station on top of the hill (above, CHB) and the remaining fascia of the Garrison Theatre at North Walls, known locally as The Liquorice Allsort, originally fronting a pair of Nissen huts, one a dance hall, the other a cinema , (c) RCAHMS).

Driving round Longhope Sound we reached Crockness; here are Crockness Martello and the Rinnigill site with its balloon repair and hydrogen production plant, and Dome Trainer. The Scapa Balloon Barrage, created in 1940 and aimed at keeping air attacks to a high altitude, played a significant role in the defence strategy; balloons were water- and land-based, with the west side based at Lyness being on land, and the east side based at St Mary's being from steam trawlers. The balloons were effective and by 1943 Scapa was the largest balloon squadron in Britain with 81 balloon sites, 55 on land and 26 at sea, though Orkney wind conditions proved 'testing'.

We accessed the Martello via a ladder kindly supplied by local farmer Stanley Thomson, whose aimiable sheepdogs kept a sharp eye on us; it is not really maintained, being open and full of bird rubbish, but it was good to see it.

The hydrogen plant I hardly saw, but the Dome Trainer was well worth a look. Sadly the roof has largely collapsed, the plaster dome has gone and only some of the plaster dish remains.

The set-up appears to be for Torpedo Attack training, with effects lanterns centrally placed, the top half of the dome painted off-white to simulate sky-effects and the bottom a sea appearance.

Returning to Lyness we had time before the ferry left to visit the Interpretation Centre there at what became in WWII HMS Proserpine, the main Naval Base. Pausing briefly outside - the rain had started - we saw a variety of guns salvaged from the scuttled German High Seas Fleet and other wrecks, a travelling dockyard crane and an example of anti-submarine netting, all layed out on a concrete flat with numerous railway lines, used in the repair and maintenance of the nets.

Of the oil tank farm, only one of 16 remains, built 1917 with a 12,000 ton capacity, with in front of it the boiler and pumphouse building which moved the oil. In the pumphouse the four large and very handsome boilers remain, converted from coal to diesel in 1936, with all their brass and glass fittings, and in the alleys between are numerous artefacts and lots of fascinating photographs of the Island's military history; there is also a shop and a cafe. From 1938-43 six tanks were dug under the adjacent hill of Wee Fea. The single oil tank has been cleaned and is now home to a collection of military vehicles and a small cinema, perched on a platform above the heating coils - oil must be heated to move it (I didn't know that) and these 'immersion heaters' did the job, which is what the boilers were for.

The ferry and coach returned us to Kirkwall in time for several of us to walk with Doreen Grove to the Bishop's and Earl's, Palaces (left, c1610, CHB), on ground much more to Doreen's liking than all this late concrete, a change I appreciated too.

The Bishop's Palace remains as a rectangular shell of very attractive sandstone, with several building periods and add-ons clear to see, and at the end Bishop Reid's handsome tall round tower with some splendid cannon embrasures in it.

The palace was built in the early C12th for the Bishop and adjacent to the cathedral; neglected for some time, major building took place in the mid-C16th, of which the tower was part. In 1568 the Bishop's Palace and lands came to Earl Robert Stewart, and it was his thoroughly unpleasant son Earl Patrick who built his palace there incorporating the Bishop's Palace and adding two wings, maybe 'the most mature and accomplished piece of Renaissance architecture in Scotland'. There are numerous small low gunports.

St Magnus Cathedral (rt, CHB) is a splendid mish-mosh of periods and styles, of striking Orkney red and cream sandstone, building continuing into Victorian times.

The weather on SUNDAY was similar, without the rain, just odd bits of drizzle, and was spent on Mainland, starting with the Hoxa (No 1 on map) batteries and Balfour Battery. On the point of the headland is the WWII 6-in battery for two guns, in concrete housings, with the BOP above and behind, crew shelters behind each gun, WWI magazines reused and three searchlight houses, all largely intact. On the hillside above are the bases of numerous accomodation huts.

Between the two later gunhouses are the remains of two simple concrete barbette emplacements for two WWI 6-in guns. The two later guns were ready for action in September 1939, though their canopies and crew shelters were not started until July 1942.

Between this battery and Balfour are the two pairs of WWI 4-in QF (2) barbettes, emplaced by March 1915, each backed by a buried magazine, accessed via two curving rock-cut passages.

The magazines are in good condition, with some contemporary records on the walls, and the gun emplacements are in very well-preserved good quality concrete. Their simplicity contrasts strongly with the WWII gun houses and even more so with the monumental director towers of Balfour Twin-6 QF Battery (3), ready for action by March 1941, and unique in being paired.

The hillside is covered with concrete; two director towers, with their gun houses, magazines and shelters; a fighting searchlight and three dispersed beam lights; several engine houses and lots of hut bases. The battery was designed to cover the Hoxa boom, anchored just north of the battery, with close range and rapid fire against the threat of MTBs. They replaced a pair of 12-pdr guns on temporary mounts, later transferred to Carness and Cara Batteries - one position is still evident. A unique and most impressive site.

On the way back to the coach a search along the waterside revealed the concrete block and remains of the Hoxa boom anchor, with some chain nearby and a heap of well rusted Bulldog clips for fixing nets to the cable.

Heading back north we stopped briefly at Churchill Barrier No 4, where notice boards explained the building of the barriers, ordered after the sinking of the Royal Oak. Most WWI block ships had been removed between wars to open the channels for fishing boats, and not been replaced. Quick of conception but slow to get underway due to the war demands on skilled personnel, the end of 1941 saw the arrival of many Italian PoWs from the conflict in North Africa. The construction of the causeways - not barriers as far as Italian PoWs were concerned as this would have constituted prohibited war work - was a remarkable piece of engineering with over 60,000 concrete blocks of 2-10 tons, being made on site and dropped into position from overhead cables. And of course they very soon were indeed causeways, much appreciated ever since. Altogether an enlightened project.

We crossed onto Burray and came to Northfield Farm, where we had the great pleasure of meeting farmers Albert and Sheila Spence, on whose land Burray Twin-6 (4) battery lies (above, CHB) and three local men who were present when the battery was built and regaled us with reminiscences of the building of the battery and wartime experiences. Here more time was spent listening than looking. A rare treat.

In March and July two 12-pdrs were installed here pending the arrival of the Twin-6 in November 1940, which was transferred to Graemsay in 1943 on completion of Barrier 3. The site adjoins and partly overlies a prehistoric broch.

Crossing two more barriers took us via Glimps Holm onto Lamb Holm and the remarkable Italian Chapel, 'only' a Nissen hut, but beautifully maintained, with a false front, and a truly astonishing interior - see Casemate 81.

In 1914-18 there were first 4 x 12-pdr QFs on patform mountings to cover Kirk Sound, replaced by early 1916 with 3 x 4-in QFs obtained from America, whose remains with two magazines are still visible under the WWII additions. In October 1939 when U47 attacked the Royal Oak, Holm Battery had been abandoned; immediately after, 2 x 12-pdrs were emplaced on the site of the WWI battery until the Twin-6 was installed and ready by September 1940.

All armament was removed with the completion of Barrier 3.

The battery is largely complete with BOP, gunhouses, SLs and engine rooms. The front of the Twin-6 position has been torn out, presumably to remove the guns. With a bit of scrambling, access could be had to the upper floor of the BOP, from where a wide panoramic view could be had. A Group photo was organised, with difficulty, as the troops were restless to start roaming.

North from Holm, facing across Shapinsay Sound, one of the approaches to Kirkwall, and covering the nearby Examination Anchorage is Rerwick Battery (6).

Once more we have a story of initial hurried work to position 2 x 4.7-in QFs in 1940, then 2 x 6-in guns ex Iron Duke, ready for action by April 1941, when the 4.7s were transferred to Shapinsay.

As well as the usual structures, all present and largely intact, are a Port War Signal Station, Fire Command Post, a Fire Command Exchange, and an OP for the controlled minefield in Shapinsay Sound. Spread out along the headland and the rugged NE coast is a wealth of varied structures.

We headed NW, round Kirkwall airfield, a short distance on the road but well back in time to the Iron Age Broch of Gurness and village, very much Doreen territory and a real pleasure to explore. It is easy to wax lyrical about a site that sits so easily in its surroundings, made of mellow lichen-covered stones and its shapes distinctly organic, comfortable conjoined circles. Would have been nice to sit on one's own here, on a quiet and sunny day.

Across Eynhallow Sound on Rousay is the companion broch of Midhowe, two of six along the coast of the Sound - early coast defence in action. A mere grass covered mound when excavation started in 1929 Gurness now displays a broch - a circular tower with hollow walls containing corridors and stairs - several metres high (20m external diameter and maybe 8-10m high originally), surrounded by typical radial houses and three ditches and banks (above). About a third has been lost to the sea. It is believed the ditches were dug about 400BC with broch and houses built around 200 years later, but after another 300 years the broch had collapsed, and the site was filled in and abandoned.

Our route took us right over to the west coast where Doreen had very kindly arranged for tea and goodies to be taken at Historic Scotland's Visitor Centre by Skaill House - and of course prehistoric Skara Brae, Orkney's oldest village 'older than Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China and older even than the Pyramids' as the lettering on the restaurant wall has it. Wow, that's really old!

This site again sits well in the landscape and is wildly atmospheric - or no doubt can be when it is clear of people, but is still impressive and remarkably similar to Gurness in shape and style.

North east of Skara Brae are the remains of Skeabrae and Twatt airfields, two of the four main military airfields in Orkney from WWII. Of the former little remains but Twatt remains as the most complete military airfield in Orkney.

The place is strewn with square stores and sheds, numerous earth banked dispersal bays, the end face of a cinema block, several pillboxes and the 'Mayan stepped pyramid' of the Control Tower and Protected Control Building, dug in beside it and surrounded by blast walls; but much has now gone. Begun in June 1940, RNAS Twatt was commissioned as HMS Tern in 1941 as a satellite of Hatston, an independent command by 1942, and sold off in 1957.

From here it was back to the hotel via the Hatston airfield industrial park and Stromness.

Dinner was followed by our second lecture of the Conference, by Philip Robertson, Senior Inspector of Marine Archaeology for Historic Scotland. His subject was the Marine Archaeology of Scapa Flow, a rivetting talk accompanied by a sometimes spectacular range of images, particularly very detailed multibeam scans of wrecks.

He described the formation of Scapa Flow and early settlement of Orkney, early sea battles with the Norse, and very numerous wrecks of all ages around Orkney's rugged coasts. The North-about route from Europe to the Atlantic was demanding, with Pentland Firth being notably testing, so Scapa Flow found use as a refuge for ships from a very early age. The most famous wrecks are those of the German High Seas Fleet (below), interned in Scapa Flow in 1918, all 70 of which were scuttled in the Flow or run aground in 1919 while the Allies bickered over their fate.

Many were salvaged from 1923-39, an immense feat, but seven remain on the seabed steadily crumbling away and a magnet for divers - it is one of the most popular sites in Europe and makes a significant contribution to the Orkney economy. There are three Konig class battleships plus four light cruisers; all have now been scheduled by HS, who carry out periodic inspections which have revealed the rapid deterioration of the vessels.

An iconic and tragic wreck in the Flow is that of HMS Royal Oak, sunk at anchor in October 1939 with the loss of 833 crew, the recent high resolution multibeam survey scans revealing her shape and condition in startling detail.

MONDAY brought another grey day as we headed west to the Ness Batteries (7 and 8 on map), west of Stromness, covering the westerly entrances to Scapa Flow, either side of Graemsay. In spite of valiant attempts by our driver to make a sharp turn by a barn, the sea on one side and the barn on the other proved too much so we walked several hundred yards up alongside the golf couse on our right, and the Twin-6 battery on Graemsay visible across Hoy Sound to our left. By the road to Ness are the remains of Links Twin-6 Battery (8), with filled-in emplacement with gun house and small engine room - the director tower has gone. In July 1940 the battery held 2 x 12-pdr QFs, the main AMTB defence of Hoy Sound, replaced by October 1940 by the Twin-6. In C&M from July 1945, the battery was reactivated in 1947 for training local Territorial Gunners, and eventually abandoned in 1955.

However, the highlight of the Sound defences waited for us up the road at the WWII Ness Battery (7), the best preserved in Orkney. Here we were met by Tom Muir, of Orkney Islands Council Museums and Heritage Services, who gave an introduction to the area and the battery, full of anecdote and life. Nobody wandered off.

In WWI, three batteries had been established on the Ness, mounting firstly 4 x 12-pdr QFs, then 2 x 6-in QF Mk4 and at No 3, 3 x 5-in BL Mk6. Of 1 and 2, bits of 2 can be seen while No 3 (3 x 5-in American guns, on the links) is virtually complete in the middle of the golf course, but the WWII 6-in battery is much more the thing. One of only two operational batteries at the start of WWII, it fired the first shots of the war from an Orkney battery.

Built in 1938, the battery is close behind the site of WWI No2. It has underground magazines, concrete or brick ancillary buildings, two complete gun houses in generally excellent condition, and a complex BOP.

The main claim to fame for Ness is the survival, in excellent condition, unique in Orkney, of most of its camp buildings, complete with very English nostalgic murals in the canteen.

The BOP (below, CHB) is complex in structure and function, developing in three main phases and serving three purposes - BOP, Naval Signal Station and as Stromness Fire Command for all the western approaches to the Flow. The battery was placed in C&M in 1945, re-activated in 1950 for training, the guns dismantled in September 1955, but until recently used by the Territorial Army.

Recently surveyed and recorded by RCAHMS its future is under active consideration.

Heading north from Stromness, our driver took us over the hill to get a wide perspective on Scapa Flow, and a better idea of its scale, on the way to the Ring of Brodgar, built between 2500 and 2000 BC, youngest of Orkney's three great monuments after the Stones of Stenness and burials at Maes Howe, and the one being abused by soldiers in Geoffrey's presentation.

Adjacent to Brodgar are the Stones of Stenness another, smaller henge, originally of 12 great stones in an ellipse, and a ditch, partially rock-cut.

From here the coach returned for a last time to our hotel and the official Tour was complete.

Since we did not have to be at our ferry until 4.30, Roger and I went into town for some lunch before returning to our concrete fest. Roger had spotted a Norcon Pillbox at Finstown, outside Kirkwall and we found it perched on a lump overlooking a bridge, fully sunk into the ground with only the slots showing, and a flat roof with a square hatch (below). No chance of escaping this one under fire.

Our Tour Guide had a photo of a 'butterfly' gun roof at Houton Battery (9) and this tempted us to investigate. On the back of the hill is an engine house and on top the hill is a derelict wood frame house, a rebuilt BOP and looking like the occupants had just walked out and left everything behind.

Below and facing over Hoy Sound, with the most spectacular outlook over the Flow and Sound is the battery itself, of 2 x 12-pdr QFs, operative in both World Wars. In the workshop a vice still sits on the bench.

Our final visit, a quick one as time was running out, was to Cara Battery (10) (1940-44), of 2 x 12-pdr QFs with 2 x 90cm SLs. The battery was placed in C&M after No4 barrier across Water Sound was above water. We were particularly interested in seeing the concrete of the gun houses, where water tank panels had been used as shuttering.

As we left St Margaret's Hope on the ferry we were able to see the mine storage building by the pier, from when this was the site of the Royal Navy's Submarine Mining HQ in both World Wars.

One treat remained - as we left St Margaret's the ferry kept close in to the shore on the port side, allowing an excellent opportunity to photograph both Balfour and Hoxa Batteries from the sea.

Our thanks are due to both Doreen Grove and Geoffrey Stell, aided by Philip Robertson and Tom Muir, Bill Clements and David Bassett, for a splendid Conference and AGM. Orkney contains a huge wealth of wartime material, of which we saw a small but fine representative sample. It would take a little longer to see the lot.

Illustrations:

• RCAHMS - Royal Commission for Ancient and Historic Monuments Scotland;

• OIC - Orkney Islands Council;

• NA - National Archives;

• IWM - Imperial War Museum;

• AWF - Alastair Fyfe;

• CHB - Charles Blackwood.

STOP PRESS: have a look at: http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/HOLMHERITAGE/index.asp?pageid=1651